Mandela - XO Natural - La Esperanza, Cafe Granja La Esperanza

Origin

• 🇨🇴 Colombia· Cauca
• 🇹🇱 Timor-Leste

Tasting notes

Character

• Funky
  20

Tastes Like: Maraschino, Tropical, Dried Fruits Origin: La Esperanza, Valle del Cauca, Colombia VarietyVariety (cultivar)The botanical subtype of the coffee plant — Gesha, Bourbon, SL28 — analogous to grape varieties in wine. A major driver of cup character alongside origin and process.: Mandela Producer: Rigoberto and Luis Eduardo Herrera Elevation: 1,430–1,760 masl Process: XO NaturalNatural processThe whole cherry is dried with the fruit still on the seed. Gives heavier body and big fruit flavors — think berries and wine — sometimes with a fermenty edge. About the Cup A fruit-saturated natural profile led by maraschino cherry, tropical fruit, and dried fruit sweetness. The cup carries a liqueur-like depth with creamy texture, structured acidityAcidityThe bright, lively, fruit-like sensation in coffee — praise, not a flaw. Citric sparkle, malic apple-crispness, tartaric wine notes; light roasts preserve more of it., and a lingering finish shaped by Mandela’s expressive character and Café Granja La Esperanza’s controlled XO Natural process. About Finca La Esperanza, Cafe Granja La Esperanza Café Granja La Esperanza is the Herrera family’s specialty coffee project in Valle del Cauca, Colombia, led by brothers Rigoberto and Luis Eduardo Herrera. The family’s coffee history began at Potosí in 1945, when Juan Antonio Herrera and Blanca Ligia Correa built on existing TypicaTypicaThe oldest cultivated arabica lineage, ancestor of most Latin American coffee. Low yield, clean and sweet cup; the baseline other varieties are measured against. plantings and introduced Yellow BourbonBourbonOne of the two foundational arabica varieties (with Typica), named after Île Bourbon (Réunion). Sweet, balanced, caramel-leaning; parent of countless modern cultivars., Red Bourbon, and CaturraCaturraA natural dwarf mutation of Bourbon found in Brazil: compact plants, easier picking, bright and clean cup. A workhorse across Latin America.. In the late 1990s, Rigoberto and Luis began expanding the operation and sharpening its focus on specialty varieties, controlled processing, and high-end microlotMicrolotA small, separately processed and traded parcel of coffee — often a single day's picking from one plot — kept apart because it's exceptional. production. La Esperanza is one of Café Granja La Esperanza’s key farms, planted across multiple lots in a humid mountain environment. The farm is part of a broader production system known for careful variety selection, precise fermentation, and controlled drying, allowing lots like this Mandela XO Natural to show concentrated fruit, liqueur-like sweetness, and a defined cup structure. About Mandela Mandela is a Café Granja La Esperanza cultivar developed through multi-stage breeding involving Caturra, Timor Hybrid, and Ethiopian landraceHeirloom (Ethiopia)A catch-all label for Ethiopia's thousands of indigenous, largely uncatalogued coffee varieties — used when a lot's exact genetics are unknown. material. It was selected with both cup quality and agronomic resilience in mind, and in specialty coffee it is often associated with expressive fruit, layered sweetness, and aromatic intensity. In this lot, Mandela provides the structure needed for the XO Natural process to read as dense and fruit-forward while still retaining clarity and acidity. About Process